Page 42 of Taming His Vampire Mate

CHAPTER TWELVE || JEREMY

Isat in the darkened room, with Thierry in bed a few feet from me, feeling some kind of way. My wolf had already settled in my chest, still and peaceful, halfway to sleep. It was simpler than I, content just knowing our vampire was safe and getting the rest he needed.

Strange, how this was shaping up.

Thierry kept surprising me.

It was laughable, at this point, that I could ever have imagined him a monster. He kept proving the opposite with practically every other word out of his mouth. His horror at what had happened here had been palpable.

And his reasons for wanting to stay? To put himself in harm’s way?

To protect any innocent people still left in the town. I had no doubt in my mind he’d stay after nightfall to do exactly that, even if it meant placing himself in terrible danger.

Even in the short time I’d spent with him, I was increasingly certain Thierry was the exact opposite of a bad person. Despite his iciness, his cutting way of speaking, and his overall archness, I now knew he cared far more than he let on. About pretty much everything.

The mate-bond was progressing rapidly. It had already begun revealing his emotions to me. I was starting to understand what made Thierry tick.

At the end of the day, he was a hero.

An arch, irritated one, but a hero nonetheless.

Ironic, that he’d end up mated to me.

Hell, I actuallywasa monster. I had done monstrous things, at least. The fact that I hadn’t succeeded didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I’d forced the bite on James last year. Seeing the handsome human man so alone in his grief, I had immediately wanted to make him my mate. I even convinced myself I could make his pain go away—that it would be better for him, that he’d have a family, a pack. But it had never been about him.

It had been about me.

I’d wanted him to make my grief vanish, as though that were possible. As though I could swap James for Ian and somehow stop the pain of losing the best thing that had ever happened to me. And if the dark-haired vampire hadn’t smelled the human’s blood and healed him—what then?

If he hadn’t stopped me from doing it again, James would’ve become a wolf too. And I might have done worse before I came to my senses. What James told me that night, when he finally managed to talk sense into me, was true. He would have hated me forever.

And I would’ve hated myself, too.

It was hurt I had caused—not only to James but to Reed, Daniel, the twins, and everyone else in my pack. I had forced them to obey me, even though they wanted nothing to do with it. And hell, if the dark-haired vampire—Pierce, I grudgingly reminded myself—was anything like Thierry, I had to feel at least a little sorry for what I’d done to him as well. After all, I had nearly killed him.

And I had no idea how I could live up to any of it, how I could make it right.

Before meeting Thierry, my answer to that had been simple: I couldn’t. The only right thing left was to keep the hell away—from them, from everyone. And now that I knew the bleeds were about to begin again, the only right choice was to make sure the pack was in better hands than mine. Reed never would have done what I had. He was the better wolf. The better man, too.

But did I still feel the same way now?

Could I still let Reed end me, now that I knew Thierry? Now that I understood the blond-haired vampire wasn’t just not-a-monster, but possibly a noble soul beneath all that ice and venom? Maybe too good for me. Something I never would have believed before now.

But did it matter how I felt?

Leaving the pack to isolate myself in the woods when there was no danger was one thing. Leaving them weakened and without a true alpha right before nightmarish creatures started slithering into this world was another.

I didn’t have a choice. Wolves are connected in subtle but real ways. And the magic that would allow Reed to be alpha couldn’t pass to him unless he defeated me. Or unless I no longer drew breath.

Which meant it had to be done, sooner or later. But maybe later. After I helped Thierry with Rookwood.

After all, the bleeds hadn’t begun yet. Lindsey would have called me if they had.

And until then, I sure as shit wasn’t leaving my vampire’s side. Not when I knew he was about to be in terrible danger. Even if he didn’t want me here, I wasn’t going anywhere. Not yet. I’d ensure his safety, even if I couldn’t keep him in the long term.

Because I had sensed enough of his emotions already to know: if there was even a remote chance a single survivor remained in Rookwood, Thierry wouldn’t leave. No matter what happened. No matter the cost.

He was a hero. He wasn’t like me at all.